A list of the most hackable cars has been released on the eve of a highly anticipated Black Hat presentation, Mozilla developers get hacked, getting started with Linux and why a little video games can be good for kids.

Direct Download:

MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Video | HD Video | Torrent | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

MP3 Feed | OGG Feed | iTunes Feed | Video Feed | Torrent Feed

Become a supporter on Patreon:

Show Notes:

Least Secure Cars Revealed At Black Hat

Research by two security experts presenting at Black Hat this week has labeled the 2014 Jeep Cherokee, the 2015 Cadillac Escalade and the 2014 Toyota Prius as among the vehicles most vulnerable to hacking because of security holes that can be accessed through a car’s Bluetooth, telematics, or on-board phone applications. The most secure cars include the Dodge Viper, the Audi A8, and the Honda Accord, according to Researchers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek. Millar and Valasek will reveal the full report on Wednesday, but spoke to Dark Reading today with some preliminary data.

The two security experts didn’t physically test the vehicles in question, but instead used information about the vehicles’ automated capabilities and internal network. “We can’t say for sure we can hack the Jeep and not the Audi,” Valasek told Dark Reading. “But… the radio can always talk to the brakes” because both are on the same network. According to the “Connected Car Cybersecurity” report from ABI Research, there have been “quite a few proof of concepts” demonstrating interception of wireless signals of tire pressure monitoring systems, impairing anti-theft systems, and taking control of self-driving and remote control features through a vehicle’s internal bus, known as controller area network (CAN).

• Researchers to name the most hackable cars at Black Hat – Computerworld

Thousands of Mozilla developers’ e-mail addresses, password hashes exposed | Ars Technica

About 76,000 e-mail addresses and 4,000 password hashes were left on a publicly accessible server for about 30 days beginning June 23, according to a blog post. There is no indication the data was accessed, but Mozilla officials investigating the disclosure can’t rule out the possibility.

The code Mozilla uses for their developer login site is open source and posted on GitHub. It looks like from the code they didn’t key stretch the hash. While the salt keeps things ‘safer’ (no rainbow tables, etc), against a GPU brute-forcing attempt, the fact these are straight hashes means they are a little weak against brute-forcing.

Introduction to Linux | edX

Beginning August 1st, The Linux Foundation, in conjunction with online education giant edX, is offering a free Introduction to Linux course.

This class, first announced in early March, is available for free. That’s not bad for a class that usually runs $2,400!

This massively open online course (MOOC) is being taught by Jerry Cooperstein. Cooperstein is a nuclear astrophysicist who’s been using Linux since 1994 and teaching it for almost that long.

According to Dice, the leading career site for technology and engineering professionals, nine out of ten IT hiring managers are looking for Linux pros.

This class looks at Linux from a very high level. You’ll be able to use Linux distributions from any of the three major Linux families, including Red Hat, with Fedora or CentOS; Debian, including Ubunt or Mint; and SUSE, including openSUSE.

This course will cover the various tools and techniques commonly used by Linux programmers, system administrators and end users to do day-to-day work in Linux.

• Linux Foundation’s free online intro to Linux class opens its doors | ZDNet

Could a Little Video Game Play Be Good for Kids?

Researchers found that kids who played video games for less than one hour a day were more likely to be happy, helpful and emotionally stable than kids who never grab a controller, according to findings published online Aug. 4 in the journal Pediatrics.

More than three hours daily of gaming had the opposite effect, however. Video game junkies were more likely to be moody, unhappy with their life and apt to act out in negative ways.

To examine both the positive and negative effects of gaming, researchers assessed the video game habits and emotional growth of nearly 5,000 British boys and girls aged 10 to 15.